A woman narrates the thoughts of a world traveler, meditations on time and memory expressed in words and images from places as far-flung as Japan, Guinea-Bissau, Iceland, and San Francisco.
Serene Siam (1937)
This travelogue begins at Bangkok's rail depot, a center of Indo-Chinese commerce. Next the narrator talks about Buddhism as the camera shows us some of Bangkok's many temples. Then, the narrator introduces us to the importance of traditional dance, with emphasis on the way that delicate wrist movements tell stories. It's on to the system of waterways in Bangkok, where more than 1,000,000 people live or conduct commerce. We take a ride down the Menam River, the country's most important commercial and social road. From our boat, we pass Wat Arun and other colorful signs of life typical in serene Siam.
Glimpses of Peru (1937)
This Traveltalk series short brings us to Lima, Peru where we see a modern city.
Rocky Mountain Grandeur (1937)
This Traveltalk short visits Rocky Mountain National Park and a nearby dude ranch in Colorado.
Burnham Beeches (1909)
First film of Burnham Beeches, the famous beauty spot and ultimate film location.
Batouk (1968)
This uneven and uninspired documentary of Africa is a collection from various stock footage. Female dancers in mod clothes dance on the Eiffel Tower in comparison to the primitive dances of native Africans. A lone runner trains for a marathon, and a few animals are shown in their natural habitat. Commentary and modern jazz and pop music help to make this seem much longer than 66 minutes.
Messengers (2025)
A poetic exploration of three subterranean telescopes in remote regions of Canada, Japan, and Antarctica that reveal a new way of perceiving the universe from within. Underground, we are dreaming into the earth.
Son of Torum (1989)
In the same vein as Meri's other documentations, this one takes advantage of the glasnost policy to discuss the social and ecologic impact of the Russian oil industry on the natives and the lands they inhabit.
Berlin: Symphony of a Great City (1927)
A day in the city of Berlin, which experienced an industrial boom in the 1920s, and still provides an insight into the living and working conditions at that time. Germany had just recovered a little from the worst consequences of the First World War, the great economic crisis was still a few years away and Hitler was not yet an issue at the time.
Given (2017)
A young family leaves their home on Kauai. It is time to return to the itinerant path from which all things in their uncommon lives come; beginning and ending on a remote dot in the Pacific. They nomadically trace continents to places where waves meet their edges, envoys of aloha. It is what they will learn, what they bring others, what they will pass on to their children in the hyper-expanded classroom, the lab of direct being; a legacy passed from a father to his family.
Olympia Part One: Festival of the Nations (1938)
Starting with a long and lyrical overture, evoking the origins of the Olympic Games in ancient Greece, Riefenstahl covers twenty-one athletic events in the first half of this two-part love letter to the human body and spirit, culminating with the marathon, where Jesse Owens became the first track and field athlete to win four gold medals in a single Olympics.
Trans-Canada Journey (1963)
A jetliner spans the miles, sheering through clouds to open sky and scenic vistas of the provinces below. Glimpses of town and country, of people of many ethnic origins, of a resourceful and industrious nation - impressions it would take days and weeks to gather at first hand - are brought to you in this vivid 1800-kilometer panorama.
Olympia Part Two: Festival of Beauty (1938)
Part two of Leni Riefenstahl's monumental examination of the 1938 Olympic Games, the cameras leave the main stadium and venture into the many halls and fields deployed for such sports as fencing, polo, cycling, and the modern pentathlon, which was won by American Glenn Morris.
Pickle (2016)
An ode to man's capacity to care for all creatures throughout their sometimes greatly protracted existence, displayed through the homegrown remedies Tom and Debbie Nicholson create for disabled animals.
Powaqqatsi (1988)
An exploration of technologically developing nations and the effect the transition to Western-style modernization has had on them.
Chronos (1985)
Carefully picked scenes of nature and civilization are viewed at high speed using time-lapse cinematography in an effort to demonstrate the history of various regions.
Naqoyqatsi (2002)
A visual montage portrait of our contemporary world dominated by globalized technology and violence.
Your Heritage: The River Tyne (1962)
As the Cold War bristles with menace in the 60s, the youth at Kielder Workman’s Club celebrate free time with an American dance called the ‘Twist’. But it’s the Faustian pact with industry this brilliant travelogue focuses on first as it maps the path of the River Tyne. The sounds of heavy machinery and graft pitch us into Newcastle’s shipyards and collieries, whilst drugs spin off a machine called Bliss in Winthrop Laboratories’ production-slick war against pain.